Highlights: ICMR DG Balram Bhargava tests positive for Covid-19

Telangana on Thursday registered 551 new Covid-19 cases, one death, and 682 recoveries, taking the total number of cases in the state to 2,80,195. As per the state health department, a total of 2,71,649 people have recovered from Coronavirus infection in the state, while 1,506 succumbed to deaths due to the virus. The active cases currently stand at 7,040. Telangana's recovery rate stands at 96.94 per cent and the case fatality rate stands at 0.53 per cent.

Puducherry registered 50 fresh coronavirus cases taking the overall tally in the union territory to 37,670, a top Health department official said on Friday.

The 50 new infections were detected at the end of the examination of 2,913 samples in the last 24 hours, Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a release.

Australian states and territories on Friday begun imposing border restrictions after 28 Covid-19 cases were detected from a cluster on Sydney's northern beaches, with fears the number of infections will rise. "Everyone in greater Sydney needs to be on high alert," New South Wales (NSW) state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told a news conference on Friday in announcing 10 new cases.

Health authorities fear the cluster may have spread to other areas of Sydney, Australia's most populous city, as they have yet to determine the source of the infections. NSW has urged about a quarter of a million residents in the affected suburbs in Sydney to stay home for three days

China is planning to vaccinate 50 million people in the high-priority group against the coronavirus before the start of the peak Lunar New Year travel season early next year, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday. Beijing is planning to distribute 100 million doses of the vaccines made by Chinese firms Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech Ltd, the report said.

Arunachal Pradesh's Covid-19 tally rose to 16,603 as 29 more people, including four security personnel, tested positive for the infection, a health department official said on Friday. Of the fresh cases, 11 were reported from Tawang, four each from the Capital Complex region and East Siang and three from Lohit, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said

South Africa on Thursday reported 9,126 new coronavirus cases, taking the national tally to 892,813, the country's health department reported. Meanwhile, 184 more Covid -19 deaths were recorded, taking the country's death toll from the disease to 24,011.

Poland confirmed on Thursday 11,953 new Covid -19 cases, bringing the country's total caseload to 1,171,854, according to the country's health ministry. The ministry also announced 431 new deaths from the virus, raising the national death toll to 24,345.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 33,777 to 1,439,938, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Friday. The reported death toll rose by 813 to 24,938, the tally showed.

Ten more people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, raising the tally in the Union Territory to 4,860, a health department official said on Friday. Of the 10 fresh cases, nine have travel history while one was detected during contact tracing, the official said. The death toll remained at 61 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported, he said.

With the addition of 331 new Covid-19 cases, the tally in Thane district of Maharashtra has gone up to 2,37,660, an official said on Friday. He said the death toll rose to 5,849 after seven more patients succumbed to the infection.

The official said the Covid-19 recovery rate in the district is 95.53 per cent (2,27,048), while the mortality rate is 2.46 per cent (5,849). Thane district now has 4,763 active cases, he said.

Jharkhand's Covid-19 caseload mounted to 1,12,332 as 211 more people tested positive for the infection, a health department official said on Friday. The death toll increased to 1,007 as three more persons succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, he said.

Sweden's king said his country had failed in its handling of Covid-19, in a sharp criticism of a pandemic policy partly blamed for a high death toll among the elderly. Carl XVI Gustaf, whose son and daughter-in-law tested positive last month, used an annual royal Christmas TV special to highlight the growing impact of the virus, in a rare intervention from a monarch whose duties are largely ceremonial. Sweden has stood out from most countries by shunning lockdowns and face masks, leaving schools, restaurants and businesses largely open and relying mainly on voluntary social distancing and hygiene recommendations to slow the spread.

Indonesia’s capital is stepping up movement restrictions in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus as more people are set to travel to and from the city over the year-end holiday. Jakarta, already a hotbed of Covid-19 cases in the country, is limiting activities at various public places from Friday until Jan. 8, 2021, according to a statement Thursday. Offices must close by 7pm, while restaurants, shopping malls, movie theaters and tourist sites must shut by 9pm. On Christmas and New Year public holidays, recreational sites must close by 7pm.

Johnson & Johnson said on Thursday it has fully enrolled participants for the first late-stage trial of its Covid-19 single-dose vaccine candidate. The study, named Ensemble, has enrolled about 45,000 participants and is being conducted by its unit Janssen, J&J said in a statement, adding that it expects interim data from the trial by the end of January 2021. J&J also said it plans to submit an emergency use authorization application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in February if the data from the study is safe and effective.

Mizoram recorded nine fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours which pushed the infection tally to 4,094, according to the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR), Government of Mizoram. As per the state government, the total discharged cases in the state are 3,923. The active cases in the state are 164, while the death toll due to the infection is at seven.